B AL 



118 



B AL 



of timber or beams, of from 5 to 12 inches 

 square, as imported; the larger are ac- 

 counted timber. Bulk is also a pro- 

 Yincial name of the summer-beam of a 

 building ; and in some parts of Scotland 

 it is synonymous with Cubber. Among 

 bricklayers, the term denotes the pieces 

 of timber used in making scaffolds. In 

 agriculture, a balk is a ridge of land passed 

 over in ploughing and not turned. 



BALK/ERS, in fishery, persons stationed 

 on rocks and eminences to espy the shoals 

 of herrings, and give notice to the men 

 In the boats which way they pass. 



BALL, is a popular name of any spherical 

 body, -whether natural or artificial ; found 

 in most European languages with little 



variation of meaning or orthography. 



In heraldry, balls are common bearings, 

 called, according to their different colours, 

 ogresses, besants, golpes, guzes, hurts, 

 pellets, plates, pomeys, oranges, torteaux. 

 A printer's ball consists of hair or 

 wool covered with leather, fixed into a 

 stock called the ball-stock, somewhat hol- 

 low at one end, and serving as a handle : 

 used (formerly) to put ink on the types 

 in the forms (instead of the roller now 



used). Puff-ball is a popular name of 



the lycoperdon ; and ball-vein, a miner's 

 name for a species of iron ore which oc- 

 curs in loose nodular masses. 



BALL AND SOCKET, an instrument made 

 usually of brass, with a perpetual screw, 

 so as to move horizontally, vertically, 

 and obliquely : used in managing survey- 

 ing and astronomical instruments. 



BALL-COCK, a hollow globe of metal 

 attached to the end of a lever which turns 

 the stop-cock of a cistern pipe, by floating 

 on the surface of the water, thereby re- 

 gulating the supply. 



BAL'LET, a Fr. term, dim. otbal, a dance. 

 1. A dramatic dance, the object of which 

 is to express by the different movements 

 Borne subject, sentiment, passion, or ac- 

 tion. 'J. A species of dramatic poem 



representing some fabulous subject. 



3. In heraldry, the term is used in the 

 same sense as ball (q. v.). 



BALLIAGE, a small duty paid to the city 

 of London by aliens . and even by denizens, 

 for certain commodities exported by them. 



BALL IST A, written also balista. See 

 BALISTEB.. 



BALLISTIC PEXDCI.UX, a machine for 

 ascertaining the force of military projec- 

 tiles, and consequently of gunpowder. It 

 consists of a large block of wood, sus- 

 pended vertically by a horizontal iron 

 axis, to which it is connected by an iron 

 stem. The ball impinges against the 

 block, and causes it to vibrate through a 

 certain arc proportional to tke force of 

 the impact, and this arc being accurately 

 observed, the force of the projectile is 

 cocisqu i^tly known. 



Bii/LirM, Li the architecture of the. 

 middle ages, the open space or court oi a 

 fortified castle. 



BALL'ON is a French term, meaning a 

 large ball or balloon ; used to denote a 

 globe on the top of a pillar. 



BAL'LOON, from ballon (q\ v.). 1. Ache- 

 mical glass receiver in the form of a 



hollow globe with a short neck. 2. 



A spherical silk bag filled with hydrogen 

 gas or with heated air, by the buoyancy 

 of which it ascends into the atmosphere : 

 sometimes called for distinction an air- 

 balloon. 3. A ball of pasteboard filled 



with combustibles to be played o;V when 

 fired, either in the air or in water, burst- 

 ing like a bomb, and throwing out sparks 

 like stars. 



BAL'LOT, a ball used in voting : FT. 02*- 

 lote ; Sp. balota, a little ball. Voting by 

 ballot signifies voting by putting little 

 balls of different colours into a box or 

 urn : the greater number of one colour 

 determines the result. Tickets are also 

 used instead of ballots, and called by tae 

 same name. 



Most clubs elect their members by 



ballot a white ball indicating assent, 



and a black one dissent: hence when 



an applicant is rejected, he is said to b 



blackballed. 



BALLOTA, the stinking-horehound A 

 genus of perennials. IHdynamia~C-<;ni- 

 nosperma. Name fictX^VTv., from /SaAX/', 

 to repel, in allusion to its disagreeable 

 smell. 



BAL'LOTADE, in the menage, the leap O< 

 a horse between two pillars or upoi a 

 straight line, so that when his fore fe;,l 

 are in the air, he shows nothing but the 

 shoes of his hind feet, without jerking 

 out : it is thus distinguished from capriole. 



BALM, contraction of balsam (q. v.). IE. 

 botany, the popular name of several plants. 

 especially the Melissa, the species of which 

 are aromatic. Balm of Gilead, the bal- 

 samic produce of the amyris gileadensis, a 

 low tree or shrub indigenous to Arabia and 

 Abyssinia, and transplanted at an eariy 

 period to Judea. This is the most valu- 

 able of all the balsams, but it rarely 

 finds its way to this country. The balm 

 of Canada, which is merely a fine turpen- 

 tine, obtained from an American species 

 of fir-tree (pinus balsamea\, is usually 

 substituted for it. and the tree itself is in 

 consequence popularly called the balm of 

 Oilead. See OPOBALSAM. 



BAL'SAM, Lat. balsamum, of pot.Xffct.fJU>v, 

 from the oriental baal samen. prince of 

 oils Balsams are vegetable juices either 

 liquid, or which spontaneously become 

 concrete, consisting of a substance of a 

 resinous nature, combined with benzoic- 

 acid, or which are capable of affording 

 benzole acidbv being heated alone or with 



